China's logistics operation showed a positive trend of stabilization and recovery from January to October this year, according to the data released on Friday by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
During the period, the total volume of social logistics nationwide was 287.8 trillion yuan (around 39.8 trillion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 5.7 percent.
In October, the total volume of social logistics also saw an increase of 5.7 percent year on year, the best growth rate since June, indicating that the recovery momentum of logistics operation has strengthened.
"From January to October, the development of logistics was relatively good and continued to recover. The logistics sector is a frontrunner in the entire national economy, so the continued recovery of logistics reflects the further strengthened recovery trend of China's economy," said Cai Jin, vice president of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
Specifically, the total logistics volume of industrial products maintained steady growth, with more than 80 percent of regions and industries achieving growth.
The demand for manufacturing logistics, represented by equipment manufacturing, remained stable. In October, the total logistics volume of the equipment manufacturing industry increased by 6.6 percent year on year.
The growth of import logistics was also stable, and the import logistics of bulk commodities such as iron ore and coal improved.
Driven by policies such as the trade-in of old consumer goods for new ones, the logistics demand of institutions and residents rebounded significantly. In October, the total retail logistics volume of goods related to offline retail trade logistics increased by five percent year on year. Logistics demand related to the retail sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment, cultural and office supplies, and furniture products increased by 39.2 percent, 18 percent, and 7.4 percent, respectively, year on year.
"In October, the recovery momentum of logistics operation strengthened, and there has been a trend of stabilization and recovery in multiple fields, with a structural improvement. With the acceleration of production and the approaching of peak consumption season, various departments are stepping up efforts to promote the implementation of incremental policies, which will further release the potential of consumption and provide favorable support for the development of the logistics industry. The further enhancement of production activity and the acceleration of production, as well as the growth of demand, have driven the growth of logistics demand for bulk commodities in the entire import sector and consumer goods related products," said Liu Yuhang, director of the China Logistics Information Center.
In terms of consumer logistics, the release of consumption potential in multiple scenarios has accelerated the recovery of logistics demand of institutions and residents. From January to October, their total logistics volume increased by eight percent year on year. In October, both offline and online consumer demand grew on a monthly basis.
"The logistics industry's supporting role in the entire national economy has been continuously strengthened. It has improved production efficiency and expanded consumption upgrades. The logistics operations in China are showing an overall upward trend," said Jiang Xu, dean of the School of Logistics of Beijing Wuzi University.
China's logistics sector achieves 5.7 pct yearly growth in Jan-Oct period
A full-chain open ecosystem for embodied intelligence has taken initial shape in Beijing, centered on a national-local jointly established innovation platform. The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center is working to break down technology barriers and data silos by open-sourcing key robotics frameworks and AI models.
After its "Tiangong Ultra" humanoid robot won the world's first humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing last year, the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center has accelerated efforts to open-source its core technologies, aiming to help the industry move faster toward real-world applications.
In the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon held in April 2025 in Beijing, Tiangong Ultra claimed championship by completing the 21.0975-kilometer race in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds. Soon after, the center open-sourced its motion-control framework, followed by the release of multiple embodied AI models, including VLM, VLA and world models.
"First, our technology must be leading and earn everyone's recognition. Second, the technology really has to serve everyone well. Some companies do have good technology, they may do well on one specific aspect, but they don't open-source it, so others can not have access to it. But we are a fully open-source platform. Last year's marathon was a very good application scenario to test the stability and reliability of a robot's hardware. At that time, robots from three companies finished the race. Ours completed the whole race, and we were more than one hour ahead of the second place," said Xiong.
The results, he said, demonstrated that Tiangong's hardware platform and motion-control capabilities are among the industry's leading technologies.
Since the platform was made open-source, the center said its latest technologies have been downloaded more than 2 million times across China.
This year's humanoid robot half-marathon is scheduled for April 19, featuring a more demanding route including urban slopes, undulating roads and ecological sections inside parks.
The upgraded course is expected to pose greater challenges for robots' terrain adaptability and motion-control algorithms.
"This year, we have actually made all of our robots fully open-source and open. Now it is no longer just us that are using Tiangong technology to participate in the competition. Instead, more than 20 universities, research institutes and some enterprises in the industry are competing in the race by equipping the robots with their own algorithms. Some have even made modifications and improvements based on Tiangong, and then joined the competition. This is how the value of our platform is brought into play," said Xiong.
The center announced the launch of an ecosystem development plan for open-source embodied intelligence, which it described as the world's first full-chain ecosystem initiative centered on a national-local joint innovation platform.
The plan aims to break down technology barriers and data silos while linking upstream and downstream segments of the industrial chain.
"The current robots are still far from mature enough if they truly work in real-world situations, like on production lines, in some dangerous scenarios by replacing humans to do some specific work. We need to open-source all these technologies to the industries, so that everyone can use these technologies and improve rapidly, instead of engaging in low-level competition," said Xiong.
China now has more than 100 robotics companies, but many still focus mainly on building robot bodies, while capabilities such as motion performance, environmental perception, task planning and AI decision-making remain relatively weak, Xiong explained.
With open-source platforms and stronger foundational technologies, these companies could shift toward higher-value entry points in the market.
"We hope that the open-source technologies we release can serve as underlying technologies, so that they can innovate in vertical fields. For example, some may be in the power industry, some in the petrochemical industry, some in elderly care, and some in household services. Because the market is actually big enough, so everyone can use its own strengths, its understanding and insights into the industry to achieve better results in that vertical field, rather than doing repetitive work," Xiong noted.
Full-chain embodied AI ecosystem takes shape by leveraging national-local innovation platform
